No More Learning

Parker himself for
some time declined any reply. At last came out
his Reproof to the Rehearsal Transprosedy in which
he urged the Government to crush the pestilent
wit, the servant of Cromwell, and the friend of
Milton. ** To this work Marvell replied in the
second part of the Rehearsal, He was further
spirited to it by an anonymous letter, pleasant
and laconic enough, left for him at a friend's house,
signed ** T. G. ** and concluding with the words —
" If thou darest to print any lie or libel against
Dr. Parker, by the eternal God, I will cut thy
throat ! *' He who wrote it, whoever he was,
was ignorant of MarvelFs nature, if he thought
thereby to intimidate him into silence. His intre-
pid spirit was but further provoked by this inso-
lent threat, which he took care to publish in the
title-page of his reply. To this publication Par-
ker attempted no rejoinder. Anthony Wood him-
self tells us, that Parker "judged it more prudent
to lay down the cudgels, than to enter the lists
again with an untowardly combatant, so hugely
well versed and experienced in the then but newly
refined art ; though much in mode and fashion
ever since, of sporting and jeering buffoonery.
It was generally thought, however, by many of
those who were otherwise favourers of Parker's



Digitized by VjOOQIC



XXXIY NOTICE or THE AUTHOR,

cause, that the victory lay on Marveirs side, and
it wrought this good effect on Parker, that forever
after it took down his great spirit. " And Burnet
tells us, that he " withdrew from the town, and
ceased writii>g for some years. "

Of this greatest work of Marvell's singular
genius it is difficult, even if we had space for it,
to present the reader with any considerable ex-
tracts. The allusions are oflen so obscure — the
wit of one page is so dependent on that of an-
other — the humour and pleasantry are so continu-
ous — ^and the character of the work, from its very
nature, is so excursive, that its merits can be
fully appreciated only on a regular perusal. We
regret to say, also, that there are other reasons
which render any very lengthened citations un-
desirable.
The work has faults which would, in
innumerable cases, disguise its real merit from
modern readers, or rather deter them from giving
it a reading altogether. It is characterized by
much of the coarseness which was so prevalent
in that age, and from which Marvell was by no
means free ; though, as we shall endeavour here-
after to show, his spirit was far from partaking
of the malevolence of ordinary satirists.

Yet the reader must not infer that the only, or
even the chief, merit of the Rehearsal Transprosed
consists in wit and banter. Not only is there
amidst all its ludicrous levities, " a vehemence of
solemn reproof, and an eloquence of invective, that



Digitized by VjOOQIC



NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXXV

awes one with the spirit of a modem Junius;"*
but there are many passages of very powerful
reasoning, in advocacy of truths then but ill under-
stood, and of rights which had been shamefully
violated.

Perhaps the most interesting passages of the
work are those in which Marvell refers to his
great friend, John Milton. Parker, with his cus-
tomary malignity, had insinuated that the poet,
who was then living in cautious retirement, might
have been the author of the Rehearsal — appa-
rently with the view of turning the indignation
of government upon the illustrious recluse. Mar-
vell had always entertained towards Milton a
feeling of reverence akin to idolatry, and this
stroke of deliberate malice was more than he
could bear. He generously hastened to throw his
shield over his aged and prostrate patron.

** J. M. was, and is, a man of great learning and
sharpness of wit as any man. It was his misfortune,
living in a tumultuous time, to be tossed on the wrong
side, and he writ, flagrante BeUo, certain dangerous
treatises of no other nature than that which I men-
tioned to you writ by your own father, only with this
difference, that your father's, which I have by me, was
written with the same design, but with much less wit
or judgment. At his Majesty's happy return, J. M.
did partake, even as you yourself did, of his regal
clemency, and has ever since lived in a most retired

* D^Israeli.